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A Vancouver-bound bus crashed on icy Oregon highway on December 30, 2012 leaving nine people dead and several injured.

An international group of six friends is determined to continue their English studies in Vancouver despite the horrifying bus crash they experienced on what was supposed to be the last day of a fun-filled tour of America’s West Coast.

As two of their friends recuperate in an Oregon hospital, 24-year-old Korean student Seokwon Kang and his three other friends crossed back into British Columbia Wednesday night in a small convoy of SUVs provided by an Oregon car dealer.

The group of six students — three Koreans, two Taiwanese and one Japanese — had been studying in downtown Vancouver at the same ESL school when they decided to sign up for the trip. All survived and want to continue their studies Kang said, despite broken limbs, cuts and scrapes as well as lingering shock from the crash that killed nine people Sunday.

“After the accident we are in chaos a little,” Kang said Wednesday night during a small media scrum outside the Peace Arch border crossing. “I’m OK now and I think I can study more.

“Every one of my friends are going to stay in Vancouver.”

Kang, who suffered whiplash in the accident, said he contacted his parents soon after the crash to tell them he was OK and going to continue studying until July. For now though, he will focus on helping one of his friends recuperate from her broken leg.

They were among 12 people — nine from Metro Vancouver — given a lift home Wednesday by experienced drivers in vehicles provided by a Ford dealership in La Grande, Ore.

Roger Barnes, manager at Legacy Ford Lincoln, provided the SUVs after members of the American Red Cross told him the survivors were nervous about taking another bus.

Ahead of the SUV carrying Kang and his three friends, Seongho Jo,18, and 16-year-old Peter Kim rested in the backseat of another vehicle.

Jo and Kim are studying English and live in with the same homestay family in Port Moody.

Grasping his head and neck that were still sore, Jo told of how an overhead television screen fell and smashed onto him when the bus crashed.

“I’m getting better,” he said in Korean.

Besides the fatalities, dozens of people were injured when a bus bound for Vancouver plunged down a snowy embankment in northeastern Oregon. According to St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton, Ore., four injured people remain at hospital in fair condition.

“After hearing this tragedy on the news I thought these people are stuck and at the moment the only way to get them home is on a bus, but if it were me I wouldn’t want to get on another bus,” Barnes said Wednesday.

“We routinely move cars and we have a lot of drivers so it seemed like something we could do to help.”

The survivors left Oregon at about 11 a.m. Wednesday, with three heading to Seattle.

“They know we had an accident so they drive safely,” Kang said. “They are very kind.”

A list of injured released by police named seven Canadian residents, including the driver, who was identified as Haeng Kyu Hwang, 54, a deacon at Kwanglin Methodist Church in Surrey.

Church secretary Jeannie Kim said Hwang has been a deacon at the church for about five years and described him as a “good man” with a loving family. She declined to disclose any further information and said she wasn’t sure if he had returned home on Wednesday.

Hwang was driving a bus owned by Mi Joo Tour and Travel, a company incorporated in 1997 that has offices in Vancouver and Coquitlam, according to corporate records.

A bus safety website run by the U.S. Department of Transportation said Mi Joo has six buses, none of which have been involved in any accidents in the past two years. The bus company’s director, Edward Kang, did not answer telephone calls Wednesday.

B.C.’s Transportation Ministry said Mi Joo has maintained its satisfactory rating over the past three years. During that time, it was issued three violation tickets in B.C. and two red light camera tickets.

Meanwhile, the bus company involved in the Sunday's fatal crash in Oregon has temporarily closed its offices.

A message at the Coquitlam office of Mi Joo Tour and Travel said the company "expresses deep sympathy" for those involved in the crash and that staff is fully cooperating in the investigation.

Oregon Police have identified five of the people who died in the crash but say it has been difficult to identify everyone because of their traumatic injuries. The identification process is also affected by factors including the availability of legal identification, fingerprint and medical records.

Troopers are taking photos of unidentified property, including purses and luggage, to local hospitals to show survivors in an effort to find the owners.

South Korean Consulate representatives are helping deliver property belonging to injured people outside the local area.

Two of the those who died in the crash were identified Wednesday evening as Yongho Lee, a 75-year-old woman from Lynnwood, Wash. and Youmin Kim, an 11-year-old South Korean girl who was staying with a family in B.C.

Earlier, officials had released the names of a couple from Korea who died in the crash. Oun Hong Jung, 67, and his wife, Joong What Kim, 63, were reportedly staying with relatives in Bothell, Wash.

Another victim has been identified as Dale William Osborn, 57, of Spanaway, Wash. His wife, Sue Osborn, remained hospitalized in Pendleton.

The crash occurred near a spot on the interstate called Deadman Pass, at the top of a steep, 11-kilometre descent from the Blue Mountains. Though there were icy spots where the crash occurred, that was nothing unusual for this time of year, said Tom Strandberg, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation. He said a sanding truck had applied sand a few hours earlier and was behind the bus making another run when the crash occurred.

According to the Oregon Department of Transportation Fatality Analysis Reporting Section, the crash is tied for the second deadliest traffic incident in Oregon since 1946 and the deadliest since 1971. Since 2003, Oregon has not had a fatal crash in which six or more people have died until last Sunday’s bus crash.

Spotlights

Student Peter Kim, one of the survivors of the fatal Oregon crash of a Vancouver-bound chartered bus talks about his experiences in the rollover crash Wednesday, January 02, 2013 in Blaine, Washington.

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